Leave it to Melville to pass off a textbook on whaling as the Great American Novel. Part treatise, part philosophy, part cinema and musical theater, and no part love story -- quite an achievement. The book is by turns delightful, riotous, and profounLeave it to Melville to pass off a textbook on whaling as the Great American Novel. Part treatise, part philosophy, part cinema and musical theater, and no part love story -- quite an achievement. The book is by turns delightful, riotous, and profound, all without a very thick plot -- Melville mixes flowery expository contemplations with understated narrations. Far be it from me to add to the corpus of Moby Dick commentary, but since it's often accused of unreadability, I figured it worth writing that I enjoyed the tome tremendously, when I managed to get through the science....more